Power converters such as buck converters or boost converters typically comprise one or more control loops for regulating their output voltages and/output currents. At an output terminal of such a power converter, an output capacitor is used to smoothen the output voltage of the power converter and to stabilize the control loop(s). Depending on the design of the power converter and the intended application scenario, a minimum capacitance and/or a minimum equivalent series resistance ESR of said output capacitor is required.
In general, stability of said control loops is an important design issue. In case of a load step, the output voltage and/or the output current of the power converter may start oscillating if stability criteria are not met. This undesirable oscillation (also denoted as ringing) may even result in audible noise and make the power converter unsuitable e.g. for noise-sensitive audio applications.